Marc

From my basic understanding, there is nothing stopping you from using one as a freelance climber, if your employed it comes down to company policy/insurance. From a loler inspector point of view if the loler dude is familiar with the piece of kit and it's use then he should pass it, if he is not he could fail it as there is no recognised mark or EN numbers to guide him. I would inspect it and pass it if fit for use, although if in the extreme scenario the worse happened and I had to explain my decision in a court that could be tricky, I feel fairly confident with the community and its use around the world that I would be justified in passing it as fit for its intended purpose. You cannot slate another inspectors decision not to deem it fit though, it's his job and his opinion and we should respect it or seek another inspector.

Sorry to hear that, we also recently got hit and like Stephen I'm at a loss to know where it all goes, in 3 days us Jenks and Tree Soloutions got hit, they took 21 power tools (chainsaw mostly) from us, Tree Soloutions again the same over 20 tools, Jenk the tools and kits so I reckon that's nearly 100 power tools between us, only a few weeks again another firms had been turned over so up the tally to 125 power tools. It's just so frustrating as you feel helpless, we gave the police the Reg of the vehicle that stole our tools from site a few months back, the driver was known to them and had a history yet no prosecution came about as they did not find any tools on him, and recently the same vehicle was again used in thefts from site. They are useless and it only makes the anger worse, particularly when I get a speeding ticket through the post when I'm caught by camera doing 36 in a 30, yet our CCTV evidence of them at the site stealing our tools is not sufficient. Still all we can do is crack on and try to earn an honest living.

I prefer muffs as they are easier to snap on and off to make communication easier, also I may be wrong about this but thought they offer greater protection when feeding a chipper as they cover the whole ear and not just shoved in the canal. Also I have heard of other problems with ear infections and blocking your ear with wax with plugs, but this is extreme and unlikely. They may mute more noise, again a negative for me as I like to hear someone shouting if they want my attention, the higher levels of noise cancelling doesn't nescersarily mean greater protection. I do use plugs from time to time myself though.

You could always get the American standard, very low stretch very much like Cougar Blue perhaps a little more consistent as Donaghys has dropped the ball big time! Availible in 3 colours traditional Poison Ivy, Hi.vee and Calamine. Not CE approved though like the Poison Ivy we get.

Same as Steve look at what your doing and try to see what's causing the most agrevasion to your injury and ease off or better still try to alter your habits. I had it really bad, I would wake up in the night with a dead arm and need to massage it awake again. It is recoverable without ops or steroids, for me it was a wake up call, if you want to remain fit and have a long career you got to pay attention to what your body is telling you.

You know it, Friday afternoon last big tree of the week and those fishermans will get jammed in a tight fork! You'll be on your knees cursing why did I choose to save a few quid.

Back when men were men Richard, you gave me that idea all them years ago, feels a long time now. There are other ways and means of making a break away and still use fancy dancy technicolor cord instead of natural fibre rope. A couple of stout key chain rings incorporated in there perhaps. For myself I prefer to unclip the saw if I have any doubts or make cuts that will not create a kerf that will trap your saw, this is why I never put sap wood cuts under my back cut always above, they can create mini step cuts grabbing the saw when knocking tops out. Would like to hear other suggestions for break away other than key rings, I have a standard shop bought lanyard now, it has from memory a SWL of 75kg not sure of the safety factor off the top of my head could be anywhere above 375kg breaking strain it will fail before my line but still be uncomfortable!

That is not a particularly good idea, the fishermans will not allow the rings to rotate and create wear in one place, we had similar devices a few years back it only took a matter of months to wear a noticeable grove in the rings. This all depends on how frequently you climb with it, and the rope as some ropes can be more abrasive than others. If they were steel it would be better. As it is the saving may be minimal over a multi saver which could last 3 times longer and is tidier. For a start though it's probably worth it, and as your climbing progresses invest in something else.

Sure why not, I used to have an adjustable lanyard using suitable cord, I could yank the tail and have it short, ten pay out slack to have it long.

It feels like a positive move, thank you Steve and forum mods.

Some intresting stuff, Paul love your ring idea with both work and rescue line. Something that is very popular amongst us is always having a rescue access line this is one of the benefits of SRT wether you use it only for access or for both access and work position. Sorry I am a bit slow to reply sometimes I do not come on for weeks and have several thousands post to look through. The situation I mentioned earlier where the climber used a toothed ascendor to pre tension his work line was like this. Tied in to a main central stem, swung across and up a large sub leader and redirected through a natural fork, he found the give between the 2 stems created to much sit back when he weighted his line, he came up with a novel idea, he lanyarded in installed a cambium saver passed a bight of line through the ring to a hand ascendor placed between the cambium saver and his tie in point creating mechanical advantage... How this helped I'm not sure.

How do you install the 2 terminal rings? Not with a fisher and I hope!

Can we tip this pile at yours it's 2 days chipping This week produced the same again, we are a small outfit this is just what a 3-4 man team can produce in a week at busy times. We do tip at various sites but just the odd load. Like Jenks as long as getting rid of chip remains profit neutral we are happy with that, although a bonus is always nice!

Mine gets pretty hot, just thought it the nature of the beast, the front of the saw that comprises the oil res has recesses I presumed for both strength and heat dissipation.

I use SRT to access most trees I climb then switch over to Doubled rope work positioning, leaving the SRT line in for rescue situation second climber or just to make my life easier after lunch. I prefer DRT because I am so used to it, it offers me all the options I need to negotiate a crown easily and efficiently in the climbing I do,particularly with a hitchclimber set-up. But do think SRT work positioning is just as effective and in some situations more effcient.

I doubt they will ever get more affordable, it's the Harken winch that makes the bulk of the price, it's a specialty product that is produced in low numbers. There are other devices built around the Harken winch that are rip offs of Gregg Goods device but dare I say it worth looking at and if I remember maybe a few hundred less. Check out Drayer or Freeworker websites in Germany to see them.

I love our GPS, and used appropriately its a life saver, I just do not look at it as something that will make me go bigger or quicker, it just opens up other safer more efficient ways of carrying out the job.

You sound like my boss, take the GPRS (still doesn't know what it's called) you be able to go twice as fast and twice as big. It's not a device that automatically makes you go bigger and faster, but it allows you to approach some situations where a standard rigging device without winching ability would be slower. Often it's not quicker it just allows you to do the job safe and efficiently. You also have to be careful so often I see crews massively pre tensioning lines that branches jump after being cut! The grcs should being reducing shock not introducing it. Or winching laterals off that come swing back in and crash into the stem above the GRCS operator.

A few things, firstly clarify Static rope we talking typical static line like the classic Beal antipodes or dyneema zero stretch lines, if not what would the difference be if any? You say 550kg before failure occurs so this makes for argument sake a load rating 5.5kn it could be slightly lower, I,ve heard of failures at 4kn. Again how does line affect this figure, and how do different lines react like double braid, kernmantle, and unicore where the outer and inner are woven together. I've also know of certain ascendors failing at the cam if the rope does not tear/fail after all they are not designed for excessive load so something has to give.

What is the rating of a toothed ascendor? And have you read the leaflet that came with it? Just curious. I have been using toothed ascendors on kernmantle rope for many years as my daily access method without any problems, it is a safe and efficient method to use when properly set-up. It is scary though seeing guys use ascendors as life support, I even saw one climber on SRT work positioning with a wrench using a natural redirect pre tension his line with a toothed ascendor and a 3 way pulley set-up, so his primary support became a tensioned ascendor.

I have the catalogue in front of me and it's very clear they are not selling you dyneema line as rope that carries a CE rating, they also make it clear it will most likely never gain CE or meet EN1891. Freeworker - Liros Torpedo 10 mm Dyneema Seil - climb up high! I didn't translate it but pretty sure " nicht nach EN1891 zertifiziert werden" means no. They are just making you aware of the facts, fact is they are selling because we want it, yeah it's fine to use, I have for the last five years! But don't go climbing on it just because I do!

Aye I love the Yale 11.7 stuff to and find the bounce fine for day to day stuff. A lot of this concern about falling and the reason our CE certified Static lines are the way they are (from my understanding) is more to do with industrial access and are not particularly relevant to tree work. Check the video in this link, it's for Beal Dynastat which has a Vectran core not Dyneema that I stated earlier and a claimed 2% stretch which is lower than the standard 3-4 % you see in other lines. Beal Dynastat ANGLOACCESS.co.uk

Ha I don t know I only talk aloud and what I say is probably all bolloxs. Although just to continue the bolloxs, a large rope access company would probably use all the right channels justifying the use of said rope and make sure they are insured. I climbed on dyneema rope because Fred on Arbtalk did is not really going to cut it as justification. If you get these ropes from say Freeworker in Germany they state clear not for PPE, although we all know we will use it as PPE Not that I care, been climbing on these ropes for years, and actually dislike the stuff that's like ascending on piano wire, and like Adam a bit of bounce does not bother if anything I prefer it.

That would be dodgy, immoral and highly illegal. You can find all these ropes easily enough the fact remains they do not have certificate's of conformity to be used commercially in Europe. Which I think is a little silly although my knowledge is very limited in this. From my understanding it comes down to worse case scenario accidents subsequent investigations and insurance question will be asked why your climbing on non CE approved PPE. I have and climb on all these lines, my argument is it conforms to ANSI and would argue if its fit for Americans and Aus/NZ the. Why not Europe? Although do not get this desire for climbing on wire particularly in the UK and our little trees where working on something 30m is rare, I could understand if it was a 50-70m Euc

Kernmaster is low stretch static line it's just that cougar blue is no stretch, it's worth considering that if you had an accident on cougar blue you may not be covered by the company you work fors insurance. But don't worry we got an old bit of Marlow lying around you can use on Monday only got a few minor nicks in it. I would like to see a the possibility of having lines like Cougar, Sterling and escalator approved in for commercial work in Europe as its ridiculous that In the USA and Aus/NZ these lines are used and approved for climbing. Been looking at Beal Dynastat it has a dyneema core so would of thought it very static, it has dual conformity as both static and dynamic as the dyneema core is designed to fail at something like 4kn, it's the dual conformity that makes me think it will still be static like Kernmaster or other European static lines. Still deciding if its worth a punt, or just get another Sterling HTP line.